1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a cartridge receptacle for an ink jet printer, which holds a cartridge having a print head and at least one removable ink reservoir. The receptacle includes a lever that covers at least a portion of the ink reservoir such that the ink reservoir cannot be changed without lifting the lever. Upon lifting and closing of the lever, a signal is output which prompts cleaning of the print head.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is generally known, color ink jet printers print images by superimposing dots having different colors. These dots are typically formed by ejecting different colored inks from a print head. The inks are typically stored in ink reservoirs, and are ejected from holes or nozzles on the print head. As might be expected, these holes or nozzles can clog from time to time, making it difficult to eject ink therefrom. In such cases, it is necessary to clean ink from the head before additional printing can take place. Such cleaning is often required when ink reservoirs are changed.
Conventional ink jet printers ensure that head cleaning takes place each time an ink reservoir is changed by cleaning their print heads in response to opening and closing of an access door on the exterior of the printer. However, this can result in unnecessary print head cleaning, particularly in cases where the access door is being opened for reasons unrelated to the print heads. As a result of such unnecessary cleanings, the amount of ink in the ink reservoirs is unnecessarily depleted.
To address this problem, printer hardware designers conceived of other methods for initiating cleaning of print heads. However, these methods met with limited success, since it was always possible to change an ink reservoir on a cartridge without initiating print head cleaning. Consequently, these other methods proved unsatisfactory.
Thus, there exists a need for a way to prevent changing of an ink reservoir in an ink jet printer without initiating cleaning of a corresponding print head.